Scientists create prosthesis for tailless dolphin and help human amputees in the process

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carroll travels the country tackling the toughest human amputation cases, so it was only natural that he was also drawn to Winter — the only known dolphin to survive the loss of her powerful tail flukes.

“My heart went out to her, and I was thinking I could probably put a tail on her,” said Carroll, vice president of prosthetics at Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc.

Recreating one of the most powerful swimming mechanisms in nature turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. But after months of experimenting, Carroll and a unique team of experts are well on their way to, as one of them puts it, “MacGyvering” a tail for Winter.

Unlike the 1980s cult TV hero “MacGyver,” who worked his way out of tight spots with everyday items, much of what Winter’s team is creating is first-of-its-kind stuff.

“We put together a team who doesn’t know what ‘no’ means,” said Mike Walsh, Winter’s lead veterinarian and a program manager at the University of Florida’s aquatic animal health program. “As long as you’re willing to try, you can make a big difference.”

Lessons can also be learned that will help human amputees. Carroll, for example, found the gel sleeve he developed to cling to 18-month-old Winter’s tail without irritating her sensitive skin also soothed a painful prosthesis for Air Force Senior Airman Brian Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand in a 2004 mortar attack in Iraq. The sleeve sticks to Winter’s tail with suction the same way a rubber surgical glove grips a human hand.

“When he tried to walk with prosthetics, you had these dagger-like boney growths sticking into the socket. It was very painful,” Carroll said. “Brian’s situation was similar to Winter’s. Winter helped him and hopefully she’ll help a lot of others as well.”

Carroll, an Orlando resident whose company is based in Bethesda, Md., said he is already thinking of new materials to make human prosthetics tougher in saltwater. And Walsh said the research on Winter is invaluable for understanding dolphin physiology and the treatment of back injuries, which can occur when dolphins are beached.

Winter lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a nonprofit marine animal rescue center and popular local attraction located in the Gulf Coast city’s former water treatment plant.

She was a frail, dehydrated 3-month-old when she came to the hospital in December 2005. A fisherman found her tangled in the buoy line of a crab trap in Indian River Lagoon near Cape Canaveral. The line cut off the blood supply to her tail and it slowly fell off like shreds of paper as the aquarium team worked to save her life.

Winter learned how to swim without her tail, which is used for propulsion — amazing her handlers with a unique combination of moves that resemble an alligator’s undulating swimming style and a shark’s side-to-side tail swipes. Winter uses her flippers, normally employed for steering and braking, to get moving.

But her unique swimming style is sure to lead to spinal problems. She already sometimes bends her spine in an unnatural curve. Trainers work with Winter, now 6-feet-long and a healthy 180 pounds on an extensive physical therapy regimen, bending the tail up and down, to keep the right muscles strong.

Walsh said allowing Winter to work out daily with a prosthetic tail may keep her from deteriorating. It is unlikely she will wear the tail full-time.

It’s uncharted territory. Fuji, an elderly dolphin that lives at an aquarium in Japan, has a prosthesis, but it is attached to the remaining part of his tail. Both of Winter’s tail flukes and peduncle, a wrist-like joint that allows a dolphin tail to move up and down, were lost.

Winter’s team also has to figure out how to keep the prosthesis from sliding off as the tail creates enough force to propel a 400-pound dolphin out of the water and 10 feet into the air.

“Every step we take is unknown,” Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO David Yates said. “Another group came to us, analyzed her and said … they didn’t know how to make the tail stay on. But Kevin came to us and said we’ve got the technology. We can do this.”

Carroll, who like the others on Winter’s team volunteers his time and resources, began by brainstorming elaborate vacuum attachments, but eventually settled on the simple silicone gel sleeve.

Handlers slide the sleeve over Winter’s stump and move her tail in up and down motions, teaching her how to swim like a normal dolphin when the prosthesis is attached.

It is a slow process. They don’t want Winter to balk at the strange new attachment.

“I thought I could go down, cast her (tail stump) and put the tail on her,” Carroll said. “I didn’t understand the training that had to go with each fitting of the tail. Working with Winter, we’re on her time, not my time. If she’s ready to do something, we move forward. It’s the same way working with a child. It takes a lot of time.”

The team plans to keep socializing Winter with new pieces until, at a point yet to be determined, they will attach the first artificial tail flukes. They plan to start out with small flukes that create a little resistance.

“She is the perfect dolphin for what she has to do,” Yates said, watching Winter toy with a herring in her tank. “A lot of dolphins might reject this up front. But every step of the way she has excelled in everything we have asked her to do.”

One day soon, Winter’s new prosthetic should have her keeping pace with the aquarium’s two rambunctious male dolphins, Nicholas and Indy.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.